Former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice dead in B.C. plane crash

PUBLISHED Fri, October 14, 2016 - 12:33pm EDT

Credit: Twitter

Former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has died after a small plane he was traveling on crashed in Lake Country in British Columbia on late Thursday evening, sources say. Three other people on board the plane were also killed.

The accident happened at around 10 p.m. on Thursday when the Kelowna RCMP and Lake Country RCMP detachments were alerted by the Surrey Air Traffic Control Centre that they had lost contact with a Citation jet shortly after its takeoff from the Kelowna International Airport.

"Several resources were immediately dispatched to the jet’s last known location," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk. "RCMP investigators located the crash site approximately 4 km into a heavily wooded area north of Beaver Lake Road east of Lake Country."

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) confirmed that all four people on board were killed, though their identities have not been disclosed. But several sources confirmed that former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice was among those killed.

The aircraft was heading to Calgary, according to Cpl. Moskaluk.

"My family's and my deepest condolences go out to Jim Prentice's wife, children and loved ones. Today, all Albertans are united in grief," said Thomas Lukaszuk, who served as Deputy Premier of Alberta in 2012 and 2013.

Jim Prentice, who was 60 years old, served as Premier of Alberta from September 2014 until May 2015. Prior to that, he served as a member of the Canadian Parliament for Calgary Centre-North and as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.

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